Independence Days Challenge

I told you I was going to issue another challenge and here it is. Some of you will have already participated in this challenge with Sharon back last year, but for those who are following me through Mothering and those who are following me directly from here, may be interested in joining in.

The words "Independence Day" conjure up deeply patriotic feelings no matter if you are born and raised in American, India, South Africa or Pakistan. To be independent is to be seperated from that which you were joined at one time. American seperated from England and we still celebrate with great passion in our country. But as American's, we have sadly become dependent on manufactured food, which is closely controlled by the FDA. With all the control that the FDA has on the food in our country, this government entity still can not keep our food supplies safe, as seen by the most recent peanut scare. We can choose to keep allowing a goverment to mandate our food supplies, or we can seperate ourselves from that system and start creating our own food. Manufactured food is not lovingly grown, watered, weeded or stored. Why don't we grow our own food and take the element of control and risk away from the government?

The Independence Days Challenge is not new, but it might be a new idea to you.

Take a moment to read through this blog post by Sharon Astyk, to see where you can begin to take your independence. http://sharonastyk.com/2008/04/29/independence-days-my-first-challenge/

One of the simplest things I can do on a daily basis is to learn to make something that I am already buying. I can learn to repair something that I would replace, grow something that I can harvest, and finally harvest something I can store.

Such simple choices can make valuable changes in our lives. So I challenge you to do something every day. If you plan to take the challenge, let me a message to let me know what you hope to do.

*** By the way, the recipe for the No Knead Bread featured in the photos from the previous post:

3 cups of whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp of yeast
1 1/4 tsp of salt
1 1/2 cups of warm water

You can watch the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13Ah9ES2yTU and I'll point out that they used white flour here. But you can use whole wheat, it just won't get the "crumb structure" that they are talking about. Still everything is the same. Read all the comments too, if you have a chance. What could be easier???

Jyotsna

February's Food Storage Challenge Update!

Happy winter to everyone. I've taken a bit of a break from my blogging as I get into the swing of winter, homeschooling, living and loving, and I'm back to talk about food storage again! It's been a month since I issued the food storage challenge and things are going well on my end.

I have to admit that when I first got started on the food storage challenge, that I got a little sick and scared. I didn't have a clear plan on how I was going to store food at my house. At the grocery store, I wanted to buy a little of everything, and half way through the store, I had two baskets, one with a crying child in it, and the other stocked full of crap I didn't need. I was nearly in tears as I tried to start my food storage, and all I could think was, "What was I going to post on my blog, when I come home with crap"! LOL. So, I took my crying child out of the extra basket, took everything I didn't need for dinner that night, and tossed it into the extra basket. Then, I focused in on ONE thing I could buy that would go towards my food storage. After looking around, I noticed the sugar that I buy was on sale, and I bought a large quanity of it. I decided that it wasn't the best start for my food storage, so I grabbed 12 large cans of my favorite tomatoes, and then called it quit.

At home I pulled everything out of my pantry, got rid of anything that wasn't edible, then started keeping my food storage foods in a different spot than what I had at home at the present time. Things are more organized, and I have quite the start (after going back to choosing some other food storage items another day).

At home, I realized that the reason I was upset was because I was trying to do this all at once. I am not going to be able to do it all at once, and neither will you.
My plan for storing food is more solid now, and once a month I will be buying a large bulk quanity of food. February will be the month of RICE. I'm planning to purchase a #50 bag of brown basmati rice. I haven't worked out the details for how I am going to store it, but I'll have a storage container ready before I pick up the rice.

I'm also looking for a food coop which I can buy large quanities of foods, specifically organic foods, and that will be part of my journey toward having healthy
items on hand in my pantry that I will enjoy eating. After taking the month long Food Storage Class with Sharon Astyk, I feel like I now have the building blocks to make all of this possible. I am so excited about the future now!

I'd love to hear from YOU about your update, how things are really going with food storage. I hope no one sugar coats anything. We can stand to learn alot from each other by telling it like it is!

Jyotsna

PS...the photos of the bread dough and final product are from the newest recipe I have been using called "No Knead Whole Wheat Bread". I'm working on a new skill every day, and if not every day, at least every week. More on this in the next post entitled, Independence Days Challenge.